Thousands Sign Up for Teflon Health Test

yet another corporate nightmare! I still remember how excited my mom was to get her first teflon cooking pots and pans. Those things always scared the hell out of me when the surface shredded and people still cooked in them ...

BELPRE, Ohio (AP) -

Ted Johnson worked 35 years for a DuPont Co. chemical plant and believed what company officials said about the safety of the operation. Now, he's not so sure. Johnson and his wife, Barbara, are among more than 43,000 people in the mid-Ohio Valley who have signed up for tests to find out if a chemical used to make Teflon might harm their health.

"At first I thought 'What I don't know, won't hurt me,'" said Barbara Johnson. "We're 69 and I thought we've been doing pretty good."

The Johnsons don't have health problems and Ted Johnson never worked in the Teflon section of the plant.

But on a recent rainy afternoon, the couple yielded to pressure from their four grown children and drove from their home in Cutler to the Ohio River town of Belpre, 17 miles away, to have their blood tested and to answer questions about their health. Getting answers about their long-term health could take years.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/thrive/2005/nov/12/111203491.html

they'll never make it stick. ;)

I'm going to get flamed here for taking their side... but this lawsuit, which has at it's roots a disgruntled employee who was terminated from the Teflon plant, is a groundless suit. While I certainly wouldn't put it past any corporation to put their interests above the community, and DuPont is no exception, there have been no studies showing a causal relationship between C8 and any increased health risks. DuPont has a reputation in our community as an excellent employer, paying a living wage and providing well above the usual employee benefits. DuPont is also one of our largest employers in the area, with around (hubby estimates) 3000 employees and contract workers.

If and when a definitive link is found between C8 exposure and increased health risks, I'll be among the first to demand that they take responsibility. But I won't assume that they are a corporation and therefore are inherently guilty of poisoning our town.

parrots. Of course what is poison to birds may not be poisonous to us. Avocado kills Cocketeils, but not humans. Still, I am wary of Teflon.

A well seasoned iron skillet is very easy to clean. I see no need for Teflon.

you cook in an iron skillet. I love mine. I don't care for teflon cookware because of how difficult cooking in them without scratching the surface.

feel of iron. My skillets are old wood stove skillets. I handle them with loving care.

cornbread made in them can't be beat.

I confess that's my sticking point with cast iron skillets. I have several, actually, but while I don't use soap on them, I never feel I've gotten them clean and the last time I used one, it left a nasty aftertaste on my frittata. Yuck. I did read somewhere the other day the tip of using coarse salt to clean them. What do both of you use?

If you skillet is well seasoned, then put some water in to make some juice for your meat and voila skillet is clean and you ahve some good juice.
Also, the real way cornbread is made is with a cast-iron skillet precook on stove and finish in the oven (if you add sugar it is Yankee bread).
Mustard greens and cornbread, yummy!

Not a flame...however..I do remember about 6 months
ago reading on the net an article from a VERY well
respected surgeon from a huge hospital complex in
Taiwan saying they had found definite links between
teflon and colon cancer.
Sorry, no link yet
Edit
http://www.bph.co.th/bphnews/highFiberDiet.html

Well..they took out the part about teflon. Hmmm.
Btw, very good advice at that link about diverticulitis.
50% of the people over the age of 50 in industrialized
countries gets it.
Take it from someone who very nearly died from it.
Me.
edit
One last link for now.
http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/teflon2.htm

Thanks for the tip about colon cancer. It runs in my family, so we try to do as much preventive maintenance as possible. :hi:

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

a causal relationship between C8 and any increased health risks.

The problem is that thousands and thousands of chemicals are produced and used by corporations in products that are then used by the public with little or no testing done regarding the long-term health effects...all with the full agreement by the u.s. gov't of course.

..my chemistry professor warned his classes about teflon, as a result I've never used it. I wonder what he knew....

Cheers!

I was always skeptical about the bits that would come off when it started to shred from metal spatula abuse. I had one years ago, but when it started to deteriorate I never replaced it. I had started on my "simple, natural, and frugal" kick (which has lasted 15 years), and I never intend to use it again. The business with it killing birds if it overheated was the LAST straw.

No aluminum either, BTW. I use only stainless steel or cast iron. I replaced my aluminum measuring spoons and cups with stainless also. That little Alzheimer's thing worries me.